American Cinematographer - April 2015 - I3

Andrij Parekh Bets on
When Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck - the pair that
made waves with their fi rst feature Half Nelson in 2006
- approached cinematographer Andrij Parekh with the
script for Mississippi Grind, he was instantly drawn to the
material. And as it was to be their fourth collaboration,
the trio were on the same page when it came to the look.
"They showed me a lot of 1970s fi lms," says Parekh, an
NYU Tisch graduate. "From that, the inspiration
for Mississippi Grind was clear. They were attracted
to Robert Altman fi lms like California Split, John Schlesinger's
Midnight Cowboy, and Wim Wenders' Paris, Texas. All fi lms I love.
That's the style and feeling we tried to give to this fi lm - long,
slow zooms mixed with handheld."
Mississippi Grind, which premiered at Sundance, stars Ryan
Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn as two down-and-out, lost souls
traveling across the American Midwest in search of fortune and
better days. Parekh wanted it to feel like a '70s road movie, and to
give it the texture of those fi lms - "a sense of timelessness of
another era," he explains. "The fi lm is a journey, and we tried to
capture the feeling of the Midwest and the South with all the
decay, the timelessness, and the nostalgia."
For Parekh's goals of matching the image to the patina of an
America past its prime, he used KODAK VISION3 500T Color
Negative Film 5219 and KODAK VISION3 250D Color Negative
Film 5207, underexposed 2/3 of a stop, and processed normally.
"I wanted the blacks slightly milky with some desaturation, and
underexposure helps me achieve that slightly worn look."
Early on in prep, the discussion inevitably came up regarding
format. They were on a tight budget and Parekh didn't want
to add more pressure to that, but based on all of the creative
discussions they'd had, it seemed that fi lm was the way to go.
Parekh proposed shooting 2-perf 35mm on an ARRICAM Lite
Camera, which he had recently used on Sophie Barthes' Madame
Bovary. "I think it saves 50 percent on stock and processing. A
400-foot magazine is eight minutes, and you can roll 22 minutes
on a 1,000-foot mag, so time on the camera is not as much of an
issue.
"Coupled with sharp lenses - we used the LEICA
SUMMILUX-C and an ANGENIEUX OPTIMO 24-290 for our
'Altman' zooms for this fi lm - the resolution and grain structure
looks more like 3-perf. It's the magic bullet combination, in
my humble opinion. And of course, the native aspect ratio of
2-perf is 2.39:1, perfect for a road movie full of landscape and
cityscapes."
The aesthetic look of a fi lm is always where
Parekh begins, then he decides how to best arrive at the end
practically. "All the references pointed toward fi lm." The trio of
fi lmmakers, who fi rst met in New York in 2004, have always shot
on fi lm, and it's how they know how to work together.
"I believe shooting on fi lm creates a different energy on set
than shooting digital," adds Parekh. "People respect it. I'm not
bashing digital in any way. It's no longer oils versus acrylic, as
the digital image can be quite beautiful. Shooting digitally can be
liberating because there are no constraints, but as a result, no
one rehearses, crew and director run in and out of the frame, and
it's because they can. There is no incentive not to. But I think the
main reason to shoot fi lm, outside of aesthetic reasons, is for the
performance. Many great actors often deliver a performance on
take one or two. I wanted everyone to be ready for Ben and Ryan
to do that, and shooting fi lm ensured that. We rehearsed, and we
were prepared for them to deliver."
"I believe
shooting on
film creates
a different
energy on set
than shooting
digital. People
respect it."
Photo: Electric City Entertainment
American Cinematographer - April 2015

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